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Obamacare Surcharge at Denny's

Now there's another reason to avoid Denny's, aside from them having the most unattractive waitresses possible.

A Florida restaurateur who operates roughly 40 Denny’s locations and five Hurricane Grill & Wings franchises in Florida, Virginia and Georgia intends to add a 5 percent surcharge to customers’ bills to offset costs from ObamaCare beginning in January 2014 when the Affordable Care Act is fully implemented.

Under the current law, employers with more than 50 full-time (or equivalent) workers will be charged a penalty for the number of employees exceeding 30 full-time staffers who are not covered. With an average of 35 full-time employees per location, Metz said the $2,000 penalty would total roughly $70,000 per restaurant. Current coverage costs Metz up to $6,000 annually per full-time employee, he said. He currently provides coverage to about 250 employees.

I don't know how I feel about this to be honest. I don't think it's something I should be completely ignoring, but I'm very skeptical. I've read about other things similar to this, and when I read the article, it seems this is only happening at businesses with owners that have a very conservative worldview. The same thing happened with Papa John's. "Papa" John Schnatter is charging extra for his pizzas, ostensibly to offset the new cost burdens of Obamacare. But John Schnatter also happens to be a huge Republican donor, so I'm not so sure he doesn't just do this to make a political point as well as extra profit.

Now there's another reason to avoid Denny's, aside from them having the most unattractive waitresses possible.

I don't know how I feel about this to be honest. I don't think it's something I should be completely ignoring, but I'm very skeptical. I've read about other things similar to this, and when it read the article, it seems this is only happening at businesses with owners that have a very conservative worldview. The same thing happened with Papa John's. "Papa" John Schnatter is charging extra for his pizzas, ostensibly to offset the new cost burdens of Obamacare. But John Schnatter also happens to be a huge Republican donor, so I'm not so sure he doesn't just do this to make a political point as well as extra profit.

Maybe it's partly political pandering, but there has to be some truth to it because I doubt they would raise prices just for the sake of making some statement. They're still in the business of making the most money possible, so raising prices without any good reason means they'll lose profit, not gain extra profit because demand would be lower. If it was that easy to be greedy and make more money, every business would be raising prices all the time without consequence.

There's also the possibility that they were going to raise prices anyway for whatever reason even if Romney was elected.

Whatever, I've never eaten Papa Johns and haven't been a Dennys in years.

Maybe it's partly political pandering, but there has to be some truth to it because I doubt they would raise prices just for the sake of making some statement. They're still in the business of making the most money possible, so raising prices without any good reason means they'll lose profit, not gain extra profit because demand would be lower. If it was that easy to be greedy and make more money, every business would be raising prices all the time without consequence.

There's also the possibility that they were going to raise prices anyway for whatever reason even if Romney was elected.

Whatever, I've never eaten Papa Johns and haven't been a Dennys in years.

They can slowly raise prices all they want based on food cost. But to come out and say it's because of Obamacare when no new regulation has come into effect since Obama's re-election is just douchebaggery.

They can slowly raise prices all they want based on food cost. But to come out and say it's because of Obamacare when no new regulation has come into effect since Obama's re-election is just douchebaggery.

Well, the logic would be that he was hoping Romney was going to be elected and repeal the healthcare act so there would be no need to raise prices until after he knew for sure who would win the next presidency. The article states the costs won't kick in until 2014, but businesses are still forward looking so they plan and act ahead.

Reading the article, he doesn't sound too bad to me. He says that it's a great concept to have everyone insured. I agree! He says that the problem is figuring out who should pay for it and how to accomplish it. That's certainly something worth addressing. It's definitely not free and if he has to raise prices to offset the costs of the new law, then so be it. Someone does have to pay for it and there could be a better system to implement it. He then suggests a VAT like in Europe would be better. Damn, I agree once again! Even better would be some type of progressive consumption tax system.

There's also a quote from the executive vice president of policy and government affairs for the National Restaurant Association who says, "...it’s premature to make a specific assessment of exactly how the law will affect any individual business because there are so many details that are unknown." Making a public statement right after the election not knowing how exactly it'll affect him probably is political pandering, but in general I see nothing wrong with him raising his prices because of the law. If he ends up putting something like "Obamacare sur charge" on the receipt, then that would be kind of douchey I guess.